Foreign Customs
by Higuchimon
Summary: [3/3 chapters, complete, Asuka x Ryou/Ryou x Asuka, Royalshipping, alternate timeline: GX season three & four] While in California for a tournament held by Industrial Illusions, Asuka runs into someone she hasn't seen in sometime: Marufuji Ryou. They have a lot to talk about, too.
1. Ocean's Memories

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters presented here. I am doing this only for entertainment purposes and am not receiving any rewards.  
**Series Title:** Foreign Customs  
**Chapter Title:** Ocean's Memories  
**Notes:** This takes place a few years after they've graduated from the Academy, and after a hypothetical alternate third season, mainly because the canon third season isn't done yet, and I'm not going to risk messing up any details. In this hypothetical alternate third season, Ryou recovered from being the Hell Kaiser. There will be some references to how it happened as the story goes on.  
**Summary:** While in California for a tournament held by Industrial Illusions, Asuka runs into someone she hasn't seen in sometime: Marufuji Ryou. They have a lot to talk about, too._

It didn't look all that much different from this side of things. Deep, cool, and streaked with a thousand colors from the sunset flames of the sky above. It wasn't anything she hadn't seen several times before in her life. But Asuka didn't move from where she stood on the beach, watching the waves roll in over and over, crashing against the sand. Seagulls soared overhead, crying out to each other in their strange tones, one or two swooping down every now and then to steal what they could from whatever remains that picnickers might've left or what possibly floated to the surface of the waves. 

_I wonder if it's too late to go swimming._ It wasn't all that cold, even with the sun already on the horizon, and she hadn't really had a chance to relax all that much since she'd arrived here. The hotel had a swimming pool, of course, but there was a very large difference between that and the entire ocean. 

How many times had she stood somewhere and watched the waves like this? She couldn't count them all. She and Fubuki had done it while they were growing up. Then she and Ryou had met so very frequently during her first year at Duel Academia. After he'd left, she hadn't really felt all that inclined to watch it anymore. There wasn't a reason too then, either. Fubuki was back with her, and that had been her main reason for being there. 

It had at least been the reason she'd told anyone who had asked, as well as telling herself it, over and over. She was glad of the slightly rising evening wind, and the fact she was alone, right now. She didn't have to explain anything that might've been a blush to anyone, and she could ignore it for herself. 

Things had been so busy with her the last few years, she hadn't even had a chance to watch the waters, even if she'd been able to come up with a reason why. Once she'd graduated, she had went straight into the Pro Leagues, determined not to put the years she'd studied to waste. Her record wasn't _quite_ as impressive as Ryou's or Juudai's, but it was still respectable enough so she'd gotten this invitation. 

She glanced back over her shoulder to the hotel on the hills behind her. It was still a little hard to believe that less than a day earlier, she'd actually met the creator of Duel Monsters face to face in the lobby there. Yes, he'd paid multiple visits to the Academy while she was there, but she had never actually met him until now. Seeing him greet Juudai like an old friend had been amusing, though. Most people would've been at least a little tongue-tied, but Juudai had just waved and wanted to know how Hayato was doing. 

_He never changes._

Juudai was almost the exact opposite of Ryou, that was for certain. Ryou had done more changing than anyone she could imagine. While he hadn't been the 'Hell Kaiser' for almost three years now, there were still times when he could be a little more ruthless than he'd been while they were in school together. She wished she could have a chance to talk to him about that whole thing. The chance had never really come up before now, and she wasn't sure if it would _now_ anyway. 

He was supposed to be in this tournament somewhere. All the young greats were there, and she flushed even more deeply at the thought of being considered one of those. People had referred to her as the 'Queen of Obelisk Blue' but the difference between dueling in school and the pros was vast. Some days it was all she could do to defeat her opponents, or at least get them to a draw. Some days she didn't even manage it at all. 

Maybe since they were there together, for the first time in almost a year and a half, they would get a chance to spend a little time together, catch up on what had been going on in one another's lives. _I'd like that,_ she decided, wrapping her arms around herself a little. The last time they'd met for more than a few minutes, in person, had been during Shou's last birthday party. They had talked some then, had a couple of drinks, and... 

Yes, if they had any time to themselves this time, there was no way she was going to have anything stronger than tea, coffee, or soda. Not to mention, she was still under the legal drinking age in this country. It was hard to say if Pegasus would permit someone underage to have a drink, but since he went everywhere with a glass of wine in one hand, she couldn't be certain. 

Asuka watched as the sun slipped completely beneath the horizon, the first stars slowly appearing in the sky as it did. It was still relatively early in the afternoon, of course, and the inside of the hotel began to look more and more attractive in her mind's eye. It was warm and full of lights in there, and all manner of holiday decorations. She wondered vaguely if this was how Pegasus celebrated every year. She hadn't ever heard of a holiday tournament before now, but that didn't mean he hadn't held one. 

There were more than a few celebrities here as well. She was certain she'd caught sight of some of the most famous duelists. She hadn't been close enough to actually be certain, but some of their features were hard to miss, after all. _I wonder if Kujaku Mai is here anywhere._ The thought of meeting the beautiful blonde duelist was extraordinarily enticing. 

She wondered if Ryou had met any of the famous people here. With his reputation, she wouldn't be surprised at all. She doubted they'd be lining up to meet him, but they'd at least cross paths a few times. It would be great for his career. It would be incredible enough just for the holidays. 

"And here I am starting to freeze myself watching the water," she muttered under her breath a trifle crossly. Still, it was a beautiful sight, and she liked seeing it and knowing it was the same ocean that lapped all around Academy Island. That place had been home to her for three years, no matter what, and she would never forget everything that had happened there. 

She glanced back again; she could see more lights being turned on, and the faint sound of music and talk could be heard when the wind blew just right. It was going to be rough getting through the throngs to get to her room, but she wasn't in any kind of rush. Even if she were interrupted by someone along the way, it wouldn't be that bad. She liked talking to people well enough, after all. 

Even knowing that, she still didn't get started inside. Sure, she did like people, but she liked her privacy just as much too. She wanted to go inside when she was ready, not just because she had been silly enough to forget her jacket. 

Which she had been. She rolled her eyes mentally to herself. Just because it was California, it didn't mean the temperature couldn't drop a little, especially in December and at night. She tightened her arms around herself, and wondered irritably why the holidays couldn't come in May or June, when it was really warm enough to enjoy them. 

Well, since she couldn't change the order of the seasons, she decided she might as well go in now. She could at least be grateful that Fubuki wasn't at this tournament. He'd been invited, she knew, but he and Manjoume had both declined to show up. She wasn't quite certain of why, but she had her suspicions about that. 

Asuka started back towards the hotel, shaking the sand from her shoes as she left the beach itself. That was one advantage the island had over this place. She'd always watched the ocean from the pier, far above where the sand would get there to annoy her. Fubuki had laughed at her for that more than once, telling her that she wouldn't really appreciate the ocean unless she actually got into it, including the sand. 

_Like I'm going to take advice from him about that._ She loved her brother deeply, but sometimes she wondered if he had a brain cell that wasn't devoted to the pursuit of fun and joy. _It could have something to do with what happened to him, though._

No, that wasn't it. He'd always been a surfing love-god, or at least he had been so in his own mind, which was where he was happiest. That was yet another reason she was glad he wasn't there. With all that mistletoe around, she was certain he would start trying to lure her under it with whoever his current candidate for her boyfriend was. At least Manjoume had finally accepted they would only be good friends. It had taken a while to convince him, though. She was glad she'd finally done it before they'd left the Academy. 

Maybe she should think about getting him something while she was here. There were still a few more days until Christmas itself, and she still hadn't worked out what would be the best gift for him. Even if she sent it right then, it would probably arrive late, but Fubuki wouldn't care. Exact dates had never meant a thing to him. More than once he'd given her a birthday gift that was either two weeks early or a month late, and had no idea there was anything unusual about this at all. 

Maybe once the duels were over with the next day, she could shop around and find something he'd like. She knew she wouldn't have to look very hard. He could and did like virtually anything. It made him both the easiest person to shop for and the hardest at the same time. She looked forward to finding something that literally made him whoop with joy because it was just what he'd always wanted somehow. The trouble with that was, Fubuki wanted anything and everything and then some other things. There were days she wondered if one of them was adopted, and if so, which one of them it was. She suspected it was him, and that he was some kind of space alien. Her parents had sworn from the time she was six onward that it wasn't so, but maybe they just didn't know... 

By the time she was actually on the outskirts of the hotel, Asuka almost wished she _did_ have a boyfriend, or at least had brought someone along who might have a spare jacket or something like that. The temperature had dropped a little more rapidly than she'd expected, and she found herself looking forward to the warmth indoors. Dinner had to be a couple of hours away still, but maybe she could grab a snack in her room from room service. She hadn't yet tried that out, but it had to be better than some of the other hotels she'd stayed at while in the Pro Leagues. They were good, but this was something run by _Pegasus Crawford_. It had to be a little slice of heaven. 

There was only one way to find out, and that was to get to it. Before she'd taken another few steps, the impeccably dressed doorman appeared and opened the door for her, bowing slightly as she went inside. Asuka smile a bit to herself. She knew she shouldn't get used to this, but it would be so easy to do so. Now, which way was it to her room again? Maybe she should've kept that map she'd been sent after all.

* * *

Half an hour later, Asuka _really_ wished she had kept that map, and that she read better English. She had managed to pass her classes, but since this was the first time she had ever been in America, and she hadn't exactly kept up with the language since graduation, she was having more than a little bit of trouble. 

"Do I turn right or left here?" She glanced first one way down the corridor, then the other, trying desperately to remember which way she'd come when she'd left her rooms before. The hallways weren't exactly identical, but they were so close to it that she just couldn't remember. 

There were plenty of people she could've asked about how to get back where she wanted to go. Servants and staff went this way and that, all of them with an air that they not only were on incredibly important errands right now, but if someone needed help, they would suspend said errand in order to do so, as they lived to serve. She wasn't sure how they managed to pull that kind of air off, but they did. Perhaps there was a school for that. There was one for almost everything else, after all. 

Part of her reluctance to ask was the fact while her grasp of written English was tolerable at best, even if it wasn't doing her much good at the moment, her spoken English was somewhat worse. So far, all of her duels had been in Japanese, for which she was profoundly grateful. Maybe Pegasus had seen to it? She didn't know, and as it wasn't helping her find her room, she didn't care. 

She wondered what the odds were that she could see someone she knew spoke Japanese enough to help her. There were enough people here who could, she knew. Juudai was here, so was Misawa, Hayato had to be around somewhere, as well as Ryou, and those were just the people she had met in school. There were other duelists who had never attended the Academy, or who had went there after she had, or before. Japan had produced most of the best duelists of the world, after all. But wherever they were, they weren't here where she could talk to them. 

There had to be _something_ that she could do. Standing here frustrated at herself wasn't getting her anywhere, and she wasn't going to wait until people started to trail through for dinner and figure it out then, either! 

"Really, Marufuji, what do you think the chances are that you're going to take this tournament?" She didn't recognize the voice, but the _name_ they spoke froze in her tracks. It wasn't as if Shou and Ryou were the only ones to ever have it, but here, now, who else could it be? 

The voice that responded confirmed it for her. "I'd rather not make any bets about it. I want to be surprised, either way." The calm confidence that underwrote every word told her a different story, though. She couldn't help but smile, then tried to figure out where the voices were coming from. 

She hadn't looked about for more than a few seconds before a group of three young men turned down the hallway she was on from the left side. _That must be where I should go._ She almost hoped that Ryou didn't notice her there as she moved to the side to let him and his companions pass. 

Whatever being it was that listened to the hopes of young female duelists was obviously taking the holiday off, however, as Ryou turned as they passed her, and their eyes met. Asuka hoped dearly that she wasn't blushing. That wasn't the impression she wanted to give at their first encounter in over a year's time. 

"Just a minute," Ryou said quietly, and his two friends stopped at once. She wasn't surprised; he had always had that kind of pure control over a situation. She'd never really known him to travel with a group though. Was this some other kind of change that he'd had recently? 

She didn't move as he came over to stand in front of her. "Asuka. It's been a while." That simple statement sent her stomach whirling in a mixture of delight and nervousness. She had never felt like that around him before, not even before the birthday party. Or after it, for that matter. 

"Over a year," she said, finding herself smiling. "How have you been?" It was something of a silly question, as they had e-mailed each other at least a few times in the month, but it was the sort of thing people said in a situation like this. What was the harm in a little polite nothing or six? 

"I've had a twenty-two duel winning streak," Ryou replied, and she congratulated him. That was a fairly impressive one. Hers was only twelve at the moment. "I'd heard you were going to be here. I was looking forward to seeing you." 

With just those words, her stomach won the gold for internal gymnastics. She ducked her head just a little, and _knew_ her face had to be red. She only hoped it wouldn't be too noticeable to him. She wanted to stay and talk, but not with those two strangers over there. It should be somewhere that wasn't some random hotel hallway, for one thing, and it should just be the two of them. She had to make some kind of excuse. "It is good to see you, but I've got to go. I need to look over my deck before tomorrow." She praised the long ago impulse that had driven her towards being a duelist. Having to check over one's cards could get one out of virtually any uncomfortable situation. 

"Very well," Ryou nodded slightly, and she thought he looked a little towards the two he was with before back to her. "Perhaps another time?" 

"Sure. Drop me an e-mail or or come by my room or something. I'm in room 417, it's..." she hesitated, and didn't care if she flushed this time or not. "I have no idea at the moment, but it's around here somewhere." 

If Ryou had been anyone else, he might have laughed at the expression on her face. She was extraordinarily glad that he wasn't. All he did was motion down the corridor that they had come from. "Go down that way and get on the elevator. It's one floor up, turn to your left and go four doors down. The number's on the door." Nothing he said gave any hint that he thought any less of her for not being able to find her way around. 

"Thanks." Asuka didn't bother explaining why she'd needed help. Now just wasn't the time. "I'll see you later, then?" 

"Of course." Ryou nodded slightly, then went back to join his friends. Asuka didn't bother waiting around to see if she could hear them talking about anything in general, and her in particular. She knew they had to be asking. She really didn't want to hear it. 

Following Ryou's directions landed her in front of her room in a very few minutes, and it was quite the relieved Asuka who closed the door behind her and leaned against it and breathed a deep and heartfelt sigh. Ryou always knew how to help her the best. He hadn't always known how to help _himself_ the best, but for the most part, when she needed a hand, he had been there. There had been times he wasn't, of course, but she didn't care about that. It wasn't the big things that mattered, it was the small ones, the quiet little moments, like what had just happened. She would much prefer him to be there then than for him to think of her as some kind of silly damsel in distress who couldn't get anywhere or do anything without him holding her hand. 

_Room service,_ she decided at once. That was what she needed, something to eat, a good hot bath, and some time with her cards. She hadn't been completely lying when she'd told him she needed to look over her deck. One of her opponents, a bright young girl she vaguely recalled as having been a couple of years ahead of her in Obelisk Blue, had pulled a rather interesting combo on her during their duel that had almost spelled defeat for her. Asuka wanted to be certain she had a few other ways to deal with that, in case someone else tried it, or something like that. Not to mention she'd picked up a couple of booster packs before going down to the beach, and she wanted to see if any of them had anything that she could use before trying to trade. There were some very nice Cyber cards in the latest expansion set, and she'd been in hopes of getting some. 

She moved over to the couch in front of the television, but didn't bother to turn it on. She'd tried that earlier, which was how she'd found out that what English she'd managed to learn in school had more or less managed to desert her. At least room service had people who spoke her language. That _had_ to be Pegasus' doing. If she knew of something he would want for the holidays, she might well have gotten it for him in thanks. 

_I wonder if I should get Ryou something._ The thought popped rather pleasantly into her mind and she considered it carefully. There were all kinds of meanings behind the thought, but she didn't think about _them_ very much. It would just be a friendly gesture, something like giving out obligation chocolate on Valentine's Day. She'd done that for him a couple of times, especially her first year at the Academy. She couldn't remember having done it the second year, but then, she didn't remember a huge bit of second year anyway. 

So now she had two people she wanted to look for some kind of a gift for, her brother and her brother's best friend. She had a lot of other people she exchanged gifts with, but most of those she'd already gotten and had stuffed down somewhere. If she couldn't get them their presents by the twenty-fifth, she'd just deliver them a little late. She'd apologize, of course, but it would work out all right in the end. 

The question now was, really, what did she want from room service, and how long would it be until Ryou got in touch with her? She frowned a little; did she really even want to take that bath now? What if he came knocking at her door before she was done with it? _That_ turned her as red as the proverbial tomato. Maybe it would be best to do it and get it done, just in case? That was what Fubuki would do. 

_No, Fubuki wouldn't care if someone interrupted him in the middle of a bath. He'd invite them to have one too, or just get dressed while they were waiting._ The thought of what else Fubuki might say in this situation made her want him to be standing there: just so she could smack him for it.

* * *

"Who was _that_?" Matsuo peered behind Ryou as Asuka vanished around the corner, open appreciation in his eyes. "Do you know her? Is she single?" 

Ryou wanted to roll his eyes. Only the self-control he practiced so rigidly kept him from doing it. This was why he didn't bother to talk to most people. They never bothered to use the brains they'd been given. 

"Her name is Tenjoin Asuka, and we went to school together." He hoped that Matsuo was bright enough to catch onto his tone of voice. He did _not_ want to discuss Asuka with anyone else at the moment. 

Matsuo looked at him, his mouth open to say something else, and Ryou delivered one of the best glares he ever had, that cold-eyed stare that had rattled more than one dueling opponent of his. The other duelist blinked a few times, then shut his mouth audibly. Ryou approved. At least he was starting to show some sense. He really wished his manager hadn't saddled him with these two...well, idiots was a little too strong, but they had graduated the Academy only a few months earlier, and they still hadn't quite caught onto the hang of things in the Pro Leagues yet. 

That was one of the things Ryou was supposed to do, according to his manager: show them how to survive in the pros. It wasn't something he was all that interested in doing. No one had shown _him_, after all. Of course that had led to certain other things, but he didn't stress about that anymore. It was over and done with and he'd learned a great deal from it. 

He was still going to have to find a way to thank Shou for everything, eventually. He'd tried over and over ever since then, but nothing had even come close to being appropriate. Wishing for his brother to be in some accident so he could save his life was the only thing that he could envision coming close, but that was nothing he would wish on _anyone_, much less Shou. He would just have to settle for whatever lesser ideas he could come up with until a proper means of thanks presented itself. 

At least Matsuo and Hidaka wouldn't have to worry about something like that. He might not be interested in doing this, but it was something he was going to have to put up with for now. Not being interested didn't mean he couldn't do it, or wouldn't do it well. There were other reasons they wouldn't have to worry about experiences similar to his as well. _They_ hadn't been the unquestioned monarchs of the school during their attendance there, with scarcely a lost duel to their names and everyone worshiping their every move. 

That had crossed his mind more than once. If he'd lost a little more before going professional, would what had happened have happened? If there had been a time or a moment at least when everyone he'd met _hadn't_ respected him just for the fact he happened to breathe the same air that they did... 

As he generally did, he put the thought out of his mind to deal with some other time. Right now, he had another tournament to deal with, and since he'd finally met Asuka after all these months, that was something else on the agenda. 

_I wonder if she **would** be interested in trying that again, without the liquor._ He had considered that from every possible angle over the last few months, and the only thing that made any kind of sense was to make the experiment a second time. Bringing it up to her was where things tended to balk, since their paths hadn't crossed in more than the most casual way since then, and this wasn't something he wanted to discuss with over the phone or via e-mail. It was something that had to be dealt with in person. 

He barely noticed whatever it was he was talking about with his two companions. He supposed they would make interesting conversation partners one day, but today wasn't that day. Especially not with his attention torn virtually evenly between the tournament and Asuka. He was certain he would have found them even less interesting if Asuka hadn't been there, since he would have then focused entirely on the duels themselves. 

He was going to have to work some on his own deck, and very soon at that, as well. He had a suspicion there were two or three duelists here who were probably going to at least try to tailor their decks to defeat his should they come across one another in a round somewhere. He'd seen them looking at him with calculating looks in their eyes. That was one of the problems with having dueled professionally for as long as he had. Almost anyone could look up his habitual cards online and work out counters. It was why he tried to have as many alternate plans in place as he possibly could. Surprise was one of the keys to success. 

"You two go have some fun," he finally said as they came out to the lounge where so many of the other duelists were roaming around, talking and laughing and doing some trading with each other. "I've got some other things I need to take care of." 

Matsuo looked at him with a flash of a knowing smirk, then nudged Hidaka. "Come on, the boss has spoken. He's got better things to do than hang around us peons when he can be talking to someone he went to _school_ with." 

Before Ryou had a chance to say anything, Matsuo vanished into the crowd, Hidaka only a few steps behind him. Ryou shook his head just the tiniest bit. It was just as well they had left so quickly. Whether they figured out that he wanted to talk to Asuka, or at least arrange to talk to her as soon as he could, or not didn't matter. He just didn't want them around when he did that. His personal life was not for everyone's attention. 

He glanced around the room for a moment, and was not surprised to see some old friends there. Juudai was deep in conversation with two or three other people, none of which Ryou himself recognized, and was as happy as a clam from all appearances. Another quick skim produced Misawa, talking quietly with someone in a corner. Ryou frowned; didn't he know that person? He felt like he should, but not from having met him personally. Perhaps he had been on the news or something. Strange, Ryou didn't know of too many people with naturally pink hair, and that just looked too real to be anything _but_ natural. 

Perhaps he'd ask Misawa about it later, if the chance arose and he didn't remember who it was before then. For the moment, there were other things on his mind. He moved away as quickly as he could, delivering polite nods when someone caught his eye, but did his best to get away from there and back up to his own room. 

Once he was safely in there, he closed and locked the door, not wanting to be disturbed. At least he wasn't required to share his suite with Hidaka and Matsuo when they went to places like this. There was teaching them how to handle themselves, and then there was _baby-sitting_. The very last thing Marufuji Ryou was, was a baby-sitter. 

Cards first, he decided, moving away from the door and pulling out his deck. He turned it over to see the Cyber End Dragon there, and wondered as he had many other times if it were looking back at him. There were times when he'd thought it had. He had never quite had the rapport with virtually any card that Juudai or Manjoume had, but this one had always held a special meaning for him. _I'm surprised I can still use it._ Very few non-duelists would believe a card could just not work for someone, but Ryou had seen far too many things over the last few years _not_ to believe it. 

After he picked up his collection of spare cards, he settled on the conveniently placed couch and spread them all out, organizing them almost automatically into monsters, spells, and traps, and beyond that. He spent quite the pleasant hour or two working out a few new strategies that should neatly puncture anything he came up against, whether it was designed to break through his usual habits or not. 

Once that was taken care of, he stood up and stretched carefully. One drawback of sitting like that so much was that it did cramp up the muscles some. Maybe he would order a massage before it got too late. 

Before it was too late, but after he did something else. He headed over to the laptop he carried with him at all times and flipped it open, logging into the Internet. It was getting just a little too late and there were too many other things on his mind to want to meet up with Asuka tonight. But there was always tomorrow. 

If it could be arranged. If she were amenable. It was entirely possible that one of the reasons she hadn't ever responded to what had happened at Shou's birthday party was because she hadn't _liked_ it even a third as much as he had. 

_If that's the way it is, then that is the way it will be._ He wouldn't press anything on her if she didn't want it. Not knowing how she felt about the situation had been slowly working its irritating way under his skin over the last few months. He had to know something, even if it did mean she wasn't interested. It wasn't as if she were the only girl who had ever existed in the entire world, of course. She was simply one of the best. He had never known anyone like her, who attracted attention and the male eye the way moths were attracted to flames. 

Well, there was Fubuki, who attracted attention, headshakes, and the eye of almost anything with a viable pulse, but that was something different. 

With a mental shrug, he began to type an e-mail to her. He wouldn't use this to find out what he wanted, but to attempt to arrange a morning meeting, it was more than suitable.

* * *

She could see the ocean from almost any room in her suite. That was a plus in her way of thinking. It made relaxing a lot easier, at least for her. She stretched out on the bed, her cards still in a slightly messy pile behind her, and watched as the silent waves moved in and out again. They were only silent because of how far away she was from them, and her mind and memory provided all the soundtrack she could've needed. If she just watched them, and didn't think too much about it, she could imagine she was back on Academy Island, standing on the pier at night, with a light bit of fog all around, with Ryou only a couple of feet to the side. 

Then she heard laughter and voices going by outside, and sighed. It wasn't anyone she knew, but just hearing it reminded her that she wasn't back in school and she had things to take care of. She hadn't gotten all that far in the last couple of hours with her deck-building. She kept getting distracted by the smallest things. 

Ryou wouldn't be getting distracted. Ryou had probably built and rebuilt his deck four times already, if that was what he wanted to do. 

_Well, I'm not him, so if I get distracted, that's fine._ She sat up some and turned so her back was to the ocean. She didn't mind being distracted, but she really had to get this sorted out. Who knew what some other duelist could trick her with if she didn't think about doing it to them first? Being taken by surprise was part and parcel of being a duelist, but so was trying to take the other person by surprise: by having avoided being surprised. 

She could understand at times why her parents never bothered to learn much about the card game except the very basics. It could get a little confusing. 

_No, confusing is finding out that you..._ She halted the thought before it got very far. She was very good at doing that, with all the practice that she'd had. 

It wasn't as if it had been a bad thing. She didn't have a great deal of experience to compare it to, but of the dozen or so times she'd done it, the time it had been with him had been the best. Sure, it was viewed slightly through a veil of intoxication, but it still beat the rest of them hollow. 

That wasn't something she'd considered telling him. Telling him she'd rather liked it, yes. But was there a way to tell him that it was the best she'd had, sober or not, and not sound like some sort of fangirl or worse? If there was, she didn't know about it. 

_What am I worried about? This is Ryou. He's one of my best friends. It's not as if telling him will change too much._ She knew that was one of the problems with the situation in the first place. What had happened _had_ changed things, if only for her. 

What would happen if it happened again? She wasn't planning on it, but she hadn't planned on it the first time, either. She was staying away from anything remotely alcoholic. That should put a halt to it right then and there, especially if he did the same thing. 

They would talk about it before this tournament, and holiday season, ended. She was certain of that. Whatever might come out of that she had not the foggiest idea, but she knew they'd discuss it and figure out something. She found she was looking forward to that chat. She kind of wanted to know who the two people he'd been with were, and everything else that had been going on with him. 

She carefully managed to work out a couple of new combos and some side strategies to supplement her usual tactics, then gathered the cards together. The booster packs had produced three or four good cards she could use, and they were all safely in her deck now. 

From across the room came a familiar sound: her laptop's mail alert. Who would be mailing her right now? If it was a piece of spam, she didn't really want to see it. She put her deck away in the container and headed over to see just who had sent her something. 

She knew who it was the moment she clicked into her e-mail program and saw the name. _Ryou._ It was somewhat strange to think of the two of them being in the same building and yet e-mailing each other, but strange was the new normal for her. 

_Asuka, _

If you're not too busy in the morning, before the duels get started, I'd like it if you had breakfast with me. The hotel restaurant has some very excellent cooks, as I'm sure you've already found out. 

There's a lot that we need to talk about, especially about what happened the last time. I've been wanting to speak with you about that, and I hope you want the same thing. 

It wasn't signed, but it didn't need to be. He had never signed any e-mail to her since they'd begun to exchange them shortly after she'd graduated. She read it over and over, her stomach shivering and bouncing about in a mixture of nervousness and excitement. She was glad she hadn't bothered to get anything from room service now. It might have at least threatened to come back up, whether it actually did or not. 

Breakfast with Ryou, and a chance to talk about everything she'd spent more than a few free moments thinking about. She'd been expecting this almost from when they'd run into each other earlier. That just meant she didn't have to think about it a whole lot, though. It was what she wanted. It was what he wanted. All that remained was to actually do it. 

She hit the reply button and sent her acceptance, adding in a suggestion that he come by her room to pick her up since finding her way around the hotel was still a living and breathing nightmare. She'd checked in her trashcan to see if the map was still there, but apparently the staff had already emptied it for the day. There was something to be said for the efficiency of the wealthy: it was annoying and inconvenient at certain times, such as now. 

Once that was done, Asuka realized she was at something of a loss for what to do. Dinner had already been served while she had worked on her deck, and she wasn't really hungry anyway. Any appetite she might've possessed had vanished as soon as she'd read Ryou's e-mail. She had a feeling it was going to return with a vengeance in the morning. 

Another e-mail arrived as she tried to think of something to do to occupy her time until she felt more like going to bed, and she clicked on it without thinking. She groaned briefly as she saw an attachment labeled 'bestgiftever.jpg' on it. If this was some kind of weird virus...wait, hold on a second. She looked more intently at the sender's name and sighed. She almost wished it had been the virus. What in the world had her insane brother sent her now? If it was another list of guys who would be great boyfriend material, at least in his mind, she was going to find a way to smack him senseless over the Internet if it took her the next thirty years of her life. 

Then again, considering he already didn't have a single grain of sense, maybe doing that would knock some _into_ him. It was hard to say. That was the trouble with dealing with Fubuki in the first place. No matter what you said, did, or thought, he just didn't care. Maybe finding a way to make him care would be even better than finding the perfect present. It would be a great gift for herself, if nothing else. 

_Hey, sis! _

Since I heard you and Ryou were both going to be in California for that Christmas tournament, I thought you might want a little reminder about what happened the last time you two were together. So here it is, courtesy of your loving big brother! Don't forget to invite me to the wedding! 

"I'll invite you alright. I'm pretty sure I can find some tradition from somewhere that says the bride's brother has to be ritually sacrificed by the bride," Asuka muttered, then clicked on the attachment. She had a sinking feeling she knew exactly what it was, and she was not at all disappointed to see a very familiar image revealing itself before her. She should've known he'd caught it on film. The only thing that worried her was why he had taken so long to let her know that he had. Did Ryou have a copy of this? Did anyone else? 

No, because it would've been all over the papers and the Pro Leagues and the Internet if they did. She'd seen it happen already, when someone had produced a _fake_ picture of Ryou and that girl from the Academy who had sworn she was in love with him. Ran, that was her name. Kochou Ran. Ryou had announced publicly at that point that he wasn't dating anyone, and if anyone ever tried to claim he was before _he_ made that statement himself, then there would be consequences. He hadn't specifically stated anything like a lawsuit but the implications had all been there. She'd framed that newspaper article in her small apartment back home. 

There it was, in all possible glory. She was surprised, mildly so, that Fubuki hadn't printed a copy and sent it to her in a nice frame. Maybe he was saving it for her birthday. He'd sent her much, much stranger things. 

Her finger flexed a little, ready to click the right button and get rid of it forever, or at least from her computer. She couldn't quite bring herself to do it, though. It wasn't as if it were a bad image. It was really quite well done. Fubuki had talent in photography. If he'd had sanity to go with it, she might've suggested he try that as well as music for whatever future career he had in mind. 

Finally she saved the picture to her hard drive and deleted the e-mail itself, not bothering to reply just yet. She thought about the time difference between here and Japan, then shrugged and gave it up. Fubuki kept his own hours and virtually always had. There was no use in trying to make sense out of it. 

She glanced at the picture again, and found a smile on her lips as she remembered that moment. His arms had been very warm around her, and his eyes had looked so very sea-green. There were no words she could come up with for how what had happened next had felt. She didn't want to say perfect, because that meant it couldn't get better, and she wanted it to _be_ better. She wanted every time, if there were more times, to be better than the one before it. It might be a little silly, but everyone was entitled to some silliness in their life. If this was going to be hers, then so be it. 

As the night crept on, Asuka kept looking at the picture and by the time she was ready to go to bed, she didn't quite want to kill her brother as badly as she usually did. 

After all, what was really so bad about a picture of the first time she and Ryou had kissed one another? 

**

To Be Continued

**


	2. Dueling and Dinner Plans

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters presented here. I am doing this only for entertainment purposes and am not receiving any rewards.  
**Series Title:** Foreign Customs   
**Chapter Title:** Dueling and Dinner Plans  
**Notes:** This takes place a few years after they've graduated from the Academy, and after a hypothetical alternate third season, mainly because the canon third season isn't done yet, and I'm not going to risk messing up any details. In this hypothetical alternate third season, Ryou recovered from being the Hell Kaiser. There will be some references to how it happened as the story goes on.  
**Summary:** While in California for a tournament held by Industrial Illusions, Asuka runs into someone she hasn't seen in sometime: Marufuji Ryou. They have a lot to talk about, too. _

Asuka's eyes popped open and she slammed one hand down on the beeping alarm clock as hard as she could. That was one situation where language barriers didn't matter at all: an alarm clock was an alarm clock no matter what. She stared at it for a few moments, trying to let her brain assimiliate just what time it was. She didn't want to be awake just yet. She _wanted_ to curl up back under the blankets and luxuriate in all that warmth for at least another hour.

Of course, since she had a breakfast meeting with Ryou relatively soon, there wasn't any way she was going to be able to do that. _This_ was something that needed a lot more preparation than any duel she'd ever had before.

_It's just breakfast with Ryou,_ she tried to tell herself as she stretched and ran her fingers through her hair, working out a few of the tangles that had taken up residence there. _I don't need to dress up for it. And I'm dueling later today, too._

She didn't really have anything in her luggage that could be called dressy in the first place, either. Oh, there was that one outfit, but she intended to wear that on the final night of the tournament, which was scheduled to be on Christmas Eve itself. She wasn't going to wear it ahead of time, and _not_ to breakfast, no matter what. Her usual dueling outfit would be more than good enough, once she got up and actually got herself together for the day.

She let her eyes slide back together for a moment and tried her best to concentrate and focus. She had to be at her best today. There was a real chance she'd lose one of her duels today, and be out of the tournament. She would still be able to attend the ceremony honoring the winner, of course, which was what she was saving her one truly fancy outfit for.

_I wonder what the odds are that I might possibly win this thing._ With some of the dueling greats here, she didn't think they were all that high. She had no intentions of giving up, but she knew somewhere along the line, she was going to lose a duel. Would it be to someone she knew? It wouldn't be the first time she'd lost to Juudai, if it turned out to be him. She hadn't ever dueled Misawa. It had never once crossed her mind to duel Ryou. He was just too good while they had been at the Academy together, and he'd only gotten better since then.

She shook her head in an attempt to focus again and pushed herself to her feet, stifling a yawn. Whoever wound up beating her, if anyone, she was going to give them the best duel she could. She didn't need to worry herself about what might happen. What she needed to think about at the moment was what she was going to talk about with Ryou during their breakfast.

_The kiss._ She glanced at the picture she'd lain on the nightstand beside the bed before going to sleep the night before, and tried not to smile too much. It made her feel a little strange inside to see them doing that. She didn't know how else to describe it other than that. How were things going to have changed by the end of the day? Or even in just the next couple of hours?

"They're not going to do any changing if I just stand here and stare," she snapped to herself, feeling her customary morning energy finally starting to stir through her. That was much more like it.

One hot shower and a change of clothes later, she felt much more like her ususal self, and left her room, determined to get things cleared up with him about that kiss, no matter what it might cost. She wanted to kiss him again, with both of them sober, and that was it. If he didn't want the same thing, she would just have to deal with that. It was much like a duel. One made the plans, and could only wait and see what one's opponent did when they were laid out on the field.

The hotel hadn't gotten any easier to deal with overnight, to her mild chagrin. She hadn't expected that it would, but it would have been pleasant if she'd found herself able to make it through without needing to ask for directions from someone.

Of course, needing to do so and actually doing so were two entirely different things, especially where Asuka was concerned. She didn't expect to run into any helpful other duelists this time, either. Most of the ones she passed either didn't pay her any attention whatsoever or from what snatches of conversation she could hear, probably didn't speak Japanese in the first place.

_Wait a second._ She sniffed the air a little, and a flash of a grin worked its way across her lips. That was a trail she could follow and not have to worry about a language barrier: the scent of breakfast. She didn't have the kind of nose for food that Juudai did, but anyone who couldn't follow the strengthening scents coming from the kitchen probably didn't have a sense of smell to start with.

Before very long, she found herself standing in the doorway of the hotel restaurant. Several of the other duelists were already there, both those who had already been eliminated and those who hadn't. Virtually all of those who had lost were sticking around for the end of tournament party, or so she surmised. Who wouldn't want to attend one of Pegasus J. Crawford's parties? They were the talk of the dueling world, in any language.

Ryou sat at a table near a window, with what looked to be a gorgeous view of the ocean. It wasn't very hard for her to find him, even with all the people going this way and that. His sense of presence was just too strong for her to miss him. She started over there, avoiding people as best she could, and smiled as she came close enough for him to see her.

"Good morning," she nodded her head slightly as she sat down and he inclined his head towards her. "Nice table you've got here." She took a quick look out the window; the view was every bit as wonderful as she'd expected it to be. She hadn't expected much less, both from the view and from him choosing a seat here. He clearly remembered their times at the Academy as well as she did.

"I thought you'd like it." Ryou said in his quiet voice. "I've been looking forward to seeing you again."

"Same here." Asuka agreed, then cut off whatever else might've come out of her mouth as a waiter came over to take their orders. Their business didn't need to be overheard by anyone else.

Ryou glanced up at the waiter, and ordered something that didn't sound very appetizing to her in flawless English. She considered being annoyed, and decided now wasn't the right time. She'd always known he spoke better English than she did, anyway. That was just what he did. He was _better_ than people. It was no more his fault than it was the fault of the sun for being yellow and hot.

"I'd like some miso soup, rice, and grilled fish please," she ordered. English wasn't her best language, but she'd at least managed to learn how to order what she wanted to eat. It had been a fairly pleasant surprise to find that regardless of whether the staff spoke Japanese or not, they at least had some familiar foods on the menu. "And green tea." It would almost be like eating at home. Without Fubuki making a fool of himself. That was a large plus to her way of thinking.

Once the waiter had left, she looked back at Ryou, trying to decide just what to say to get things started. Maybe it would be better to start with something else, and work up to that kiss, and what could come of it. Unfortunately, nothing else wanted to come to mind. Just asking after his health and what his most recent duels had been like was so mindbogglingly inane she couldn't bring herself to even consider it for more than a few seconds.

"Do you really want to talk about things here?" Ryou said before she had a chance to say anything at all, indicating everything and everyone around them with a flick of his eyes. Something tight eased inside of her as she realized he understood. It might not have tallied exactly with what she was thinking about, but at least she wasn't going to have to talk about it here and now.

"Not really. Maybe after breakfast, we could go for a walk on the beach? It's not that cold today." It would be colder at night, but night was a long way off, and even so, the thought of walking by the ocean with him under the stars was a very attractive one.

"That's a good idea." Ryou agreed. He glanced around the room again, this time a little more slowly, then looked back at her. "I've seen some of your duels. You've done very well. I expect you're going to place very high in this tournament."

"I hope so. I'm supposed to duel at least twice today," Asuka replied. She toyed a bit with the end of her napkin. "I wouldn't be surprised if you or Juudai won it, though. Or tied for it." She smiled a little at him. "It wouldn't be the first time."

Ryou chuckled softly. The school duel at the end of his last year had been one of the sweetest memories of his entire life. He'd hoped ever since then to have a chance to duel Juudai again, just to see which of them was really better. He thought it might well be Juudai, but he would give him the best duel of his life even if it was. "We'll see. Are you going to be staying for the celebration once the tournament's over?"

"Yes. I'm supposed to be going right back to Japan after Christmas, though, if I can. My parents want the whole family together for the New Year's party." She rolled her eyes a little. "Fubuki supposedly has some kind of big announcement. He's probably going to tell us he's dying his hair again. That was what he said last year, anyway."

"That does sound like him," Ryou agreed. He'd probably seen as many of Fubuki's antics as she had through the years. "He hasn't mentioned anything to me about an annoucement, though."

Asuka nodded, then put the thought of her brother and whatever he was going to try to startle them with next out of her mind. Their orders would be there soon, she hoped, and Fubuki had a tendancy to put an end to her appetite when he was there. She wasn't going to let him do it when he wasn't. "I'm wondering who else might be here that I haven't seen yet, that I know."

"I saw someone the other day that shouldn't have even been here," Ryou said after a few moments of thought. "I don't think you ever met him, though. He left the Academy before you came there. Haru Katsu." At her questioning look, he told her all about what he'd done, and before the end of the story, she was almost ready to fall off of her chair laughing.

"He actually did that? He was that _stupid_?"

Ryou shrugged a touch. "Yes, he did it. He didn't have them here, though. I'm not sure if he was trying to be an honest duelist or not. He lost already, to someone who I am fairly certain never even attended dueling school."

Asuka's lips twitched a little, and she began to relax. It had really been too long since she and Ryou had had a good talk, and she looked forward to this almost as much as she did to dueling. _And I'm looking forward to that other talk we're going to have just as much._

* * *

Neither of them could remain on the beach for as long as they might want to. They were committed to duels later that day. But for now, they had time to spare. Asuka walked beside Ryou, the waves lapping close to them, but not enough to disturb them.

"I was down here yesterday," Asuka said, remembering. "I thought about you then, and all the times we stood on the pier at the Academy."

"The ocean reminds me of you, too," Ryou replied. He didn't look at her at the moment, but she wasn't look at him either. Sight wasn't as necessary as sound was for the moment. "In a lot of ways."

She could almost feel the heat rising in her cheeks at what he said. "What do you mean?"

He shook his head for a moment, then reconsidered. "Because you're like the ocean. You can be calm most of the time, but when you blow up, it can take people by surprise, and cause damage they didn't expect." He paused, and Asuka knew she was blushing more furiously than she ever had before. He'd never said anything like that to her, or anyone else, as far as she had always been aware. "You're a challenge. You're someone to be respected. I respect you, Asuka."

Asuka didn't think she'd ever heard anything in her life that she had wanted to hear more than that. There were so few people he felt respect for, and she imagined they were even fewer that he'd said it about, much less to. It meant more to her than any words of romance might have.

"I respect you, too, Ryou," she said quietly. "I always have. No matter what." She meant every word of it as well. She couldn't remember a time when she hadn't. Ever since Fubuki had first brought home the elegant, quiet, restrained young boy who had grown into an elegant and fiery young man, she had respected him, even before knowing what the concept of respect was. He simply inspired it by his existence.

They walked along together for a little while longer, neither saying a word for several long minutes. Asuka was the one who broke the silence in the end.

"Fubuki sent me a picture of what happened that time," she said quietly. "I should've guessed he'd have one, if anyone would."

Ryou only nodded a touch. "Have you ever done that with anyone else?" he asked.

"No," she stated it quietly. "I haven't ever really wanted to kiss someone before." She didn't think parents counted after all.

There was another quiet nod from him. "I have. After what happened with you at that party, at least. Before then, there wasn't anyone else."

It took Asuka a moment to work through all of that, and once she had, she smiled a little. "So we were each other's first kiss."

"Apparently so." Ryou agreed, his voice still calm and unruffled. "I very much liked that kiss we had."

"So did I. I've been thinking about it some." Asuka took her courage in both hands and continued to speak. "I've wondered what it would be like to kiss you without anything affecting either us." She wasn't going to say 'without us being drunk'. They hadn't been drunk in the first place. They'd just had a couple of glasses too much. She would go as far as mildly buzzed, or with slightly released inhibitions.

Ryou agreed with a slight tilt of his head. "It's crossed my mind as well," he replied, nothing more. Asuka held back a shiver, and wondered if she should've brought some kind of jacket at least. It was warm, but something like that might've been useful anyway.

"You said you've kissed other people?" She wondered just why; he hadn't seemed like the type to do that.

"Yes. I wanted to know something about that kiss."

"What?"

He turned to look at her, and she glanced back at him, their eyes meeting. "I wanted to know if I enjoyed it because it was a kiss, or because I was kissing you."

Asuka couldn't take her eyes off of his face, and might not have even if she could have. "Well? What did you figure out?"

Ryou kept looking down at her, and she wondered for a moment if he intended to kiss her again. With the way the surf was pounding behind her, she couldn't be entirely certain if what she heard was it, or the sound of her heart thudding in her ears. If he had kissed her, she knew she would kiss back.

"It was you. The other kisses weren't anything like yours. I liked yours the best of them all."

Asuka found it hard to breathe suddenly. She was hot for a moment, then cold, then hot again. She had never felt anything like that in her entire life. If she hadn't known better, she might have suspected she was getting sick. Was it because of what he said? It didn't make sense for simple words to have that effect on her.

"I want to kiss you again, Ryou," she murmured quietly, and he nodded, just a little. She felt as if she were staring up at the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon with how nervous and out of her depth she felt, and she couldn't wait for more.

He started to lean down, just a little. She reached up, just a little, their eyes never leaving one another.

"Boss! Hey, boss!" Both of them pulled back from each other, and for a moment, fire flickered deep in the depths of Ryou's eyes. He said nothing at all, but his voice was calmer than the deepest depths when he spoke.

"Matsuo. Hidaka." He didn't turn away from Asuka for a moment, either. She glanced behind him to see the two duelists he'd been with the day before coming down towards them.

"Who are they, anyway?" Asuka wanted to know as they scrambled towards her and Ryou. She could at least find out who she needed to kick around for interrupting this moment.

"I'm supposed to be teaching them how to handle themselves in the Pro Leagues." Ryou turned slightly towards them as they pounded their way up. "Apparently I forgot to mention that when I say I don't want to be bothered, that's exactly what I meant." The tone of his voice could've easily been used to chill two or three deserts.

Matsuo didn't notice for a moment. "Boss, I'm supposed to be dueling in about twenty minutes, against Hayashi Michi. You've got to be there!"

Ryou said nothing at first, then turned fully back to Asuka. "He's right." Distaste flavored his voice for a moment then was gone as if it had never been. "We can continue this later. After the duels for today?"

"Right." She glanced at her watch; she had a duel herself in another hour. She really should be getting ready for it. There wasn't much she had to do besides show up; she had went through everything the night before. Maybe she could do a little research on her opponent if she had to. "Where should we meet?"

"Outside the front doors to the hotel?" he suggested. The smallest hint of a smile tugged briefly across his lips. "I think you should be able to find those."

"No problem at all." The same small hint touched her own lips for a moment. "As soon as possible after the duels are done?"

"Yes." It wasn't a specific time, since it was impossible to really judge how long a given duel could last, but they would find one another. If nothing else, they could cross paths via e-mail and see what was going on like that. Or they could just look until one of them located the other.

Matsuo fidgeted a little more. "Boss, I know you're busy trying to arrange a date with your girlfriend, but if I'm late, I'm going to be disqualified!"

Ryou glanced at him with that frosty gaze, and the younger duelist subsided obediently. He looked back at Asuka calmly. "My apologies. He still has a lot to learn."

"Didn't we all at one point?" Asuka asked. Ryou nodded ever so slightly, that ghost of a smile making another brief appearance. "I'll see you then." She looked over at Matsuo and nodded a greeting and good-bye in the same motion. "Good luck with your duel." She didn't really wish anything wrong on him for having interrupted them. At least, not all that wrong. Maybe a few bad draws at least.

She started back to the hotel itself, while Ryou and his protoges followed the path that would lead them to the dueling arena that Pegasus had set up for the tournament. She had been there four times already since this tournament had begun, twice for her own duels, once for one of Juudai's, and once for one of Misawa's. It was definitly a magnficient experience.

Before too long, they were too far away for her to keep an eye on Ryou, and she missed that. In her imagination, she could still feel the soft whisper of his breath on her lips, and wondered just what it would have tasted like to feel his lips on hers like that. Time and sobriety had muddled the memory of what the first time had been like. She wanted to be certain nothing like that happened with this one.

Entering the hotel brought her back into the sphere of the other duelists, the ones who either were already out of the running or who weren't all that interested in watching any of the other duels going on at the moment. She couldn't see anyone she knew around here, and guessed they were probably being spectators at the moment, if they weren't dueling themselves.

_Should we try to have dinner together or something tonight?_ The concerns of what was going on between herself and Ryou wandered back to the forefront of her mind. She wondered why that seemed so important to her all of a sudden. Was it just being around him again after so long? That had to be it. It certainly felt good to just talk to him, to feel him being so close to her.

They could decide what they were going to do together when they were actually together. That was on the far side of the day, and there were a lot of other things that she had to do between now and then. _I've got some time. I'm going to see who it is I'm going to be dueling today and find out what I can about them._ They were probably already doing the same thing, learning what they could about her. It was the way of the duelist.

* * *

Ryou could think of several reasons why he shouldn't smack Matsuo and Hidaka upside the head. It was rude, it was uncalled for, it was _crass_, he didn't really need to do it, and they wouldn't understand the problem in the first place. He could also think of at least one why he should: they'd interrupted things with Asuka.

Those things had been going very well, really, and that was what bothered him the most. He hadn't quite expected that they would have been each other's first kiss, though in retrospect he probably should have. He knew he had never bothered with any kind of emotional entanglement, no matter what the popular tabloids declared. Asuka hadn't either, even with Manjoume having had a deep crush on her since the ending of their first year at the Academy. She had simply not been interested in him, or anyone else, beyond the boundaries of friendship.

Finding out that things had changed, at least where he was concerned, had been a shock. Perhaps it wasn't all that bad that they'd been interrupted. He wanted to have a chance to think things through a little more before they took any extra steps.

He didn't want to rush into this, whatever 'this' might be. Calling it love was a little too quick for his tastes, and for hers, he suspected. He hadn't lied when he said he respected her. She was a strong, skilled duelist, with a great deal of heart and soul. She wasn't the only person like that in the world, but she was the one who he noticed, even without noticing that he did so.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to try a few more things before they started kissing on a regular basis. Their breakfast together had been one of the more enjoyable experiences of his life. He could get used to seeing her across a table more and more frequently. Maybe he should think about asking her to dinner that evening?

_What about the end-of-tournament party?_ He hadn't really thought about attending that beyond a cursory appearance if he placed highly enough by the end. But now that he thought about it a little more, spending several hours in Asuka's company in a party setting wasn't all that bad of an idea. There had to be something in his wardrobe that would be suitable to wear, and there would be other people to talk to as well. It had been a while since he'd done anything that resembled socializing. He wasn't very good at it, either. But with Asuka there, that was all the social life he felt he needed.

After all, she wasn't likely to try and urge him into dancing if he didn't want to, and neither of them would be inclined to overindulge in whatever alcoholic drinks happened to be laying around, not after the last time. It would be a lot more interesting than some of the so-called 'dates' he'd had to endure thanks to his manager. _Perhaps I should give myself a gift for the holidays: a new manager. He could certainly use a generous severance package as well._ It wasn't as if he couldn't find another one with a snap of his fingers. Scarcely a week went by without someone wanting to know if he felt like a change.

The sound of cheering worked its way into his attention, and he glanced up to see how the duel was progressing. Matsuo was dueling Hayashi Michi, the same girl he'd mentioned to Asuka earlier as not having went to dueling school at all. He had paid little attention to her beyond having noted that about her. She appeared to be primarily a defensive duelist, luring her opponents into attacking her face down monsters, which generally had devestating flip effects. It wasn't the most original strategy he'd ever heard of, but there were worse ones. Matsuo was also dueling fairly well, though Hayashi had a thousand point lead on him in life points.

Ryou quickly figured that the reason for the cheering was Matsuo had just neatly managed to block what appeared to be Hayashi's favorite spell card, Shield and Sword. _Now, can he follow up on that?_ He paid a little more attention to the duel, despite his minor annoyance with Matsuo. He wanted to be able to give worthwhile advice once this was done, and not necessarily just about not bothering him unnecessarily when he was busy with something, or someone, else.

A slight bend of his head was all Ryou needed to do in order to get a good look at Matsuo's hand. He didn't have anything face down on the field at the moment, so Ryou was able to quickly figure out what the best strategy of the moment could be. He wasn't able to see what Hayashi had in _her_ hand or what her two face down monsters were at the moment, but that was all right.

_If he attacks, he could lose his monsters. She's been known to use both Man-Eater Bug and Nobleman-Eater Bug so even if his monsters are more powerful than hers, if that's what she has face-down, he'll leave himself vulnerable._ Ryou eyed the cards carefully. He wouldn't give any advice for now. It was Matsuo's duel, and he wouldn't learn anything if Ryou ran it for him.

"I summon Rocket Jumper!" Matuso declared, placing the card on his Duel Disk. The holographic monster appeared, pointed directly at Hayashi's side of the field. True to the name, it was a red rocket set on top of a bandaged goblin. "And since both your monsters are in defense mode, it can attack your life points directly!"

Ryou nodded slightly; that was the best move that could be made at the moment. It bypassed whatever tricks Hayashi had in mind with her face down monsters and struck her directly. Matsuo was learning; he'd missed this kind of trick when he and Hidaka had first been assigned to Ryou.

_Dinner tonight, and then I'll see if she wants to go to the party together,_ he decided, dividing his attention between the duel and considerations on what to do with Asuka. There were still a few more days left in the tournament; perhaps they could find something to do between now and then. For that matter, perhaps he should think about getting her some kind of a gift.

That was a small problem in and of itself. He couldn't think of what she might like. He couldn't remember the last time he'd bothered to get presents for people. No one expected him to. Occasionally if he saw a card or something that his brother or parents might like, he picked it up, but he had never done something like this for Fubuki or any of his other friends.

He had absolutely never done it for Asuka. When Valentine's Day came around, she had given him obligation chocolate just like she had Juudai, Manjoume, Misawa, Shou, and anyone else she hung out with at the Academy. He presumed she'd kept on doing it after he'd left. He hadn't ever asked, and she hadn't sent him any since then. He thought he remembered getting her something for White Day, but he couldn't remember what it had been. It had been a few years, after all.

Asking Fubuki for advice on the matter didn't cross his mind for more than the time it took to dismiss the notion altogether. The elder Tenjon sibling would probably be suggesting things such as roses, candlelit dinners, and love duels. Ryou would throw himself bodily into a volcano before he would do something that inane.

He was just going to have to go searching around town for something that suited her, and if he didn't find anything, then no harm was done. They could simply talk and spend time together, before and after the party. Even with her leaving shortly after the twenty-fifth, they could remain in touch, and arrange visits on occasion. It wouldn't be that hard to do. The only reason he hadn't before was because he hadn't been certain what to do about the kiss itself.

Matsuo's cheer of victory drew his attention more fully back to the dueling. He ran what he'd seen back through his mind, not wanting anyone else to know he hadn't been paying _quite_ as much attention as they expected from him. He didn't think he'd missed anything of vital importance. Neither duelist had done anything really spectacular or stupid. It had been a slightly better than average duel, all things considered.

"Well done," he said to Matsuo. "We can talk about things more in depth later."

Matsuo flashed a cocky grin at him. "Are you sure about that, boss? Don't you kind of have previous plans?"

Ryou bent his most annoyed gaze on the younger duelist. "My plans will not take up the entire evening. I said that we will talk about it later." He didn't need to say anything else. Matsuo's eyelid twitched a little, sure sign that he was getting nervous, and Hidaka stepped up, nodding as quickly as he could.

"You're right, of course. I'm supposed to be dueling in about an hour. Will you be there?" The other duelist asked as politely as he could. Ryou nodded briefly, reviewing the schedule of duels that he'd glanced at that morning in a mental heartbeat. Asuka was to duel someone that day, he recalled. He would have to be there to watch. Her opponent's name wasn't familiar, but he wasn't overly concerned. This was Asuka. She would do her best, no matter what.

He also had a duel coming up that afternoon. It wasn't a hard and fast rule, but for the most part the lesser skilled duelists performed in the morning, with the more advanced ones coming in the afternoon. That would change as more and more of them were weeded out. He considered researching his opponent, and decided not to. He had other things he wanted to do, such as exploring the city for some suitable gift and possibly interesting dining areas that weren't connected to the hotel. That was good enough for a quick breakfast, but for a dinner, something more was required.

* * *

Asuka drew a card and glanced at it briefly before she laid it on her duel disk. "I play Pot of Greed, and if you don't know what that does, you shouldn't even have a deck of Duel Monster cards."

"Thanks for not stating the obvious," her opponent, a redhead who had introduced herself as Kohaku, told her. "If I have to hear one more person going 'this lets me draw two cards', I might have to find a way to hurt them."

"I know what you mean." Asuka had never really liked the way some duelists were just so _bland_ about what they were doing. Everyone knew what some cards did. It was still a matter of style. She pulled her two cards and examined them quickly. Things were looking good for her in this duel. There was a five hundred life point difference at the moment, but she wasn't worried about that. She'd come back from tougher situations.

This play would have to be the one to win it, though. She had two monsters on the field already, Blade Skater and Etoile Cyber. She hadn't pulled Polymerization that duel yet, or she would have had Cyber Blader on the field. But she didn't think she was going to need it now. Kohaku's Launcher Spider was about to go down. _Glad she just summoned that thing last turn. Sure, it ate my Cyber Tutu, but now...it's payback time._

"This was a really good duel, but I've kind of got something else to do with the rest of the afternoon, so it's going to have to end now," Asuka declared. She thanked that Pot of Greed. Combined with what she already had in her hand, she had what she needed to win now. "First, I play Ritual of Machine Angel!"

Kohaku groaned audibly.

Asuka grinned a little, then went on. "I sacrifice Etoile Cyber and Blade Skater for this ritual to summon..." she paused briefly for dramatic effect, "Cyber Angel Dakini!"

As she placed the card down, the monster began to form. Blue-skinned and four-armed, with the top two arms bearing a sword in each and the lower two hefting a staff between them, adorned with bronze and gold armor, it was one of the most impressive monsters in Asuka's deck. "By the way, thanks to Cyber Angel Dakini's special effect, you're not going to be able to protect yourself. Now that I've Special Summoned it, you have to destroy one monster on your side of the field. Since you only have one monster..."

"Right. Squash the spider." Kohaku hmphed lightly as her spider beast vanished in a sparkle of light, and two thousand seven hundred attacks points bore down on her mere two thousand life points. As her life point meter ran down to zero, she grinned, sweeping her cards back into her deck. "You were right, this was good."

"Maybe we can duel again sometime?" Asuka asked, going over to shake her opponent's hand. "Doesn't have to be in a tournament."

"I'd like that." Kohaku shook her hand warmly. "Those are some pretty cool monsters you've got. No one with any sense would say fairies are weak if they went up against you."

Asuka smiled a little. "Thanks. Your fire-monsters are kind of hot, too."

Kohaku blinked at her for a moment, then laughed. "That was bad. That was very bad." She shook her head and smiled. "I've got to get going, now that I'm out of the tournament. Good luck! I hear Marafuji Ryou's in this thing, so watch out for him."

"You'd better do the watching, since you're about to bump into him." Asuka held back a laugh as Kohaku whirled around in time to stop herself in her tracks. Ryou stood there, calmly looking down at her.

"Sorry about that," Kohaku apologized, backing up and bowing slightly. "Gotta go!" With a quick wave of her hand, she darted through the crowd and was soon lost to sight. Asuka shook her head; she had yet to run into a duelist who didn't have _some_ kind of interesting personality. Even Ryou had far more than his fair share of quirks.

"That was an excellent duel, and a good draw at the end there," Ryou complimented her as he came over. The crowd that had been watching dispersed, already on their way to another duel more than likely.

"I got lucky," Asuka acknowledged. It was hard to say what might have happened without knowing everything else that could've been drawn, but she was willing to attribute it to skill and luck both. They were the two best friends of any duelist. "Don't you have a duel this afternoon?"

"Yes, but it's not for another thirty minutes. I wanted to talk to you before that, if you don't mind."

Asuka shook her head. "I don't mind at all." There were few things she could think of that would be more pleasant than spending time with him right now. Most of the rest of them involved being back at home, however.

Once again the two of them found themselves walking by the ocean, this time in the opposite direction that they'd been going earlier. It felt good to get out in the fresh air, and the sound of the surf was somewhat comforting, especially when she was around him.

"Was there something in particular you wanted?" Asuka asked as they walked. She hadn't really expected to see him before their already agreed on meeting after the daily duels.

"There's two questions I want to ask," he replied, coming straight to the point. "The first is, would you care to have dinner with me this evening? I looked around town before I came to find you, and I found one or two places that should be interesting to try. They don't serve Japanese, though. The ones that do appear to be completely full for the foreseeable future."

Asuka blinked a few times, trying to get this straight in her head. Ryou was asking her out on what appeared to be a date, to some nice restaurant in town. He hadn't had to say they _were_ nice; it went without saying since he was making the suggestion. He had standards, after all. The thought of trying something new in the way of cuisine wasn't all that scary, either.

"All right," she said at last. "Dinner out on the town would be good. What was the other question?" This had to be something interesting, or Ryou would never have mentioned it in the first place.

"You're aware of the party that will be held once the tournament is over, I know." Ryou approached this a touch obliquely. She knew that he knew she knew. They'd mentioned it over breakfast, after all. "Have you thought about going with anyone?"

A thousand thoughts passed through her mind in the space of a single heartbeat, and she smiled. "Yes, I'd like to go to it with you, Ryou. There's no one here I'd rather go with." There, that passed through all the awkward asking and wondering that usually made her want to throw things at the screen when she saw something like this on television.

She was warmed by the faint hint of a smile that he bestowed on her. That was worth more than all the cheesy grins that most people had to her. So now they had two dates lined up, more or less in a row. She supposed some people might think they were moving too fast. She didn't care what they thought. This was _her_ life and _their_ relationship. They would proceed at whatever pace they felt was right, and anyone who didn't like it didn't have to pay attention to them. They should be worried about their own lives, not hers, regardless.

Asuka gazed up briefly into his eyes, enjoying the depths she found there. Many people had been terrified into surrendering duels before they'd drawn more than their first hand by staring into those eyes. She could understand why. They could be as cold as ice when he wanted them to be, and always, always were they filled with confidance beyond the lot of any mortal. Right now, however, she could see other things in them. She could see herself reflected in there, small but there, and she liked the thought of being a part of him. Was he looking at himself in her eyes, and did he liked it as much as she was liking this? There was no way to ask right now. Maybe another time, another place, another day.

"I think we need to start to head back." He didn't take his eyes from her, and she couldn't have moved at the moment for all the world. "I have that duel."

She knew he wouldn't appreciate it if he missed the duel because he was standing here with her. Dueling meant as much to him as it did to her, and she would never have forgiven him if it had been the other way around. Besides, this meant she got to watch _him_ while he was dueling, and it was a fair trade. He'd watched over her duel with Kohaku, even if she hadn't known that until afterwards.

"All right." It was better to go ahead and get that finished soon, too. There would only be two or three more in the day, and after that it would be announced who they were dueling the next day.

Ryou's duel was one of the better ones, at least as far as Asuka herself was concerned. His opponent was a young man a couple of years older than he was, with a clever style and a deck of common cards he used in interesting and unusual ways. Asuka wondered if he'd ever been to the Academy; his style wasn't anything she remembered seeing before. But in the end, it was Ryou who emerged the victor.

"Great duel!" The opposing duelist congratulated him. "Good luck, I think you could win this."

"We'll see," Ryou replied with a quiet smile and nod of his head. It felt good to be able to respect his opponents again, after everything that had happened all those years ago. He renewed his determination to find something around town not just for Asuka, but for Shou as well. There had to be something somewhere.

Asuka came a little closer as he put his deck away and tugged his duel disk off for the day. The newer models were as light as they had ever been, but wearing something like it constantly could be a little on the annoying side still. Nothing was ever that perfect.

"There's still plenty of time left until dinner," he said. "What would you like to do?"

"Why don't we just see who we're going to duel, then just talk for a while, maybe watch a movie or something?" she suggested. She had a few DVDs she'd brought with her that might work in the player in her suite. It would be better than trying to make sense of the ones the hotel had provided.

He nodded briefly, and the two of them headed towards the main room of the duel arena, where the results of each duel were electronically displayed after the winner was declared, and who they were to duel the next day was also shown. There were several displays for the various languages all the attending duelists spoke, and he checked the Japanese one first. His English was very good, but he was still most comfortable in his mother tongue.

Asuka saw her name first, and when she saw her opponent, the world virtually stopped turning around her. Ryou caught sight of it a moment later, and he froze where he stood, as taken aback as she was.

There, in glistening color, were their names. One duel the following day would be Marufuji Ryou versus Tenjoin Asuka.

**To Be Continued**


	3. Promise of the Future

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters presented here. I am doing this only for entertainment purposes and am not receiving any rewards.   
**Series Title:** Foreign Customs   
**Chapter Title:** Promise of the Future   
**Notes:** This takes place a few years after they've graduated from the Academy, and after a hypothetical alternate third season, mainly because the canon third season isn't done yet, and I'm not going to risk messing up any details. In this hypothetical alternate third season, Ryou recovered from being the Hell Kaiser. There will be some references to how it happened as the story goes on.   
**Summary:** While in California for a tournament held by Industrial Illusions, Asuka runs into someone she hasn't seen in sometime: Marufuji Ryou. They have a lot to talk about, too. _

The food was good, just different from what she was really used to. She was used to using more utensils than chopsticks, so even that didn't bother her. The drinks were also different. All in all, it was one of the things that traveling abroad was supposed to be: different. Interesting. One of those 'learning experiences'. 

Asuka still couldn't get her mind wrapped around the fact she was going to be dueling Ryou, however. The food gave her something else to think about, so that was what she _did_ think about. The price was a little startling as well. She'd never imagined one could get beef so inexpensively, and to have it be that good as well wasn't something she was used to. 

"You're thinking about our duel," Ryou said quietly from the other side of the table. She looked up and nodded a little. There was no reason to deny it, after all. It was almost the only thing that she'd thought about since they'd seen their names up there. 

"I'm not sure what to think about it, honestly," she admitted, carefully slicing off another piece of meat and examining it on the end of her fork before she put it into her mouth. It was delicious; beyond anything she could remember having. She wished it were possible to get things like this back home. 

Ryou bent his head a little, his attention as much on the food as anything else. He hadn't spoken about the duel destined for the next day either. Neither of them had been able to talk about anything related to Duel Monsters that whole evening. Other things had filled their conversations: old friends, family members, adventures past and present, and things undreamed of but hoped for. 

_I think I like this kind of talking._ Dueling meant everything to her, but there were still times she wanted to think and talk about other things. Ryou had to feel the same way. If he hadn't, she knew he would have already changed the subject to something else, to something _he_ wanted to talk about. He was never one to let a conversation go in a way he didn't want it to. 

Still, the duel to come hung over the two of them, whether they chose to pay attention to it or not. 

"Neither am I," Ryou said at last. "I don't think I've ever even considered dueling you." 

Asuka had no idea of how to take that. Was she just not on his level or had it not crossed his mind for some other reason? If it was the latter, then what would the reason be? _Am I on his level?_ Ryou was one of the greats. She knew she was good. She had to be, everything that had happened to the both of them while they were in school together and afterwards said it. But that didn't mean she was like _him_. 

"Neither have I," she said, stirring her peas around a little with her fork. "You've always had someone else who wanted to do that, and I think this is the first time we've been in a tournament together anyway." 

There was a quiet nod from him as she fell silent. She wanted to say something else, but just what she could say failed her. The quiet didn't feel forced or uncomfortable as it went on and on, however. It simply felt right. 

Duelists didn't have to be enemies, on or off the dueling field. That was one of the first things that every person who wanted to pick up a card learned. Whether they chose to act on that knowledge or not was up to them, but it was something they _knew_. Asuka had grown up on stories of the great duelists who were also great friends or great rivals. Some of the whispered legends said that the friendship between Mutou Yuugi and Jounouchi Katsuya was even responsible for saving the world. She wasn't all that certain the legends were wrong, either. She'd seen stranger things in her life. 

"Ryou," she said at last. She raised her head enough to look at him, and wasn't surprised to see him looking back at her. Good. She wanted to see his face for this. "We're going to duel tomorrow." He did her the honor of saying nothing when she made the obvious statement. "What's bothering us about it?" 

There was a heartbeat's worth of a pause before he said anything in answer. "The fact that we have been growing closer for the last two days and are on what many people would call a first date at the moment." Ryou's statement was clear and calm and she nodded her agreement. 

"If people can duel each other and stay friends, then I think they can duel each other and still keep on with whatever this is between us," she declared, waving a hand in an arc designed to encompass the two of them. Or possibly the whole world. She wasn't that particular right now. "Do you think I'm right?" 

Again he paused, just long enough for whatever was going through his mind to do so. She could wait for the answer. She thought she knew what it was anyway. "Yes." The single word fell from his lips, and she fought back a smug smile. She had been right. 

"So we're going to do our best against each other tomorrow, and whoever wins, it'll be because they deserved to, nothing more, nothing less. Just like any other duel." She dug her fork and knife into the steak before her determinedly. She had no intentions of surrendering the duel just because her opponent was someone she was seeing in something more of a friendship situation, or because he was Marufuji Ryou. If he won, she was going to make him work for it every step of the way. 

The faintest tinges of an approving smile touched Ryou's lips. Asuka caught sight of it as she glanced up from her food and returned the smile, just as faintly, but still there. Other people might have had a hard time seeing it, but they were used to each other after all the years they'd been friends. 

"You're right, of course." Ryou knew she was, and had known it all along. Somewhere in him he had felt the same words. She'd simply been the one who had voiced them. He was going to give her his ultimate best. If at all possible, he would even go beyond his best, just for her. She deserved nothing less. 

He worked on his own steak, savoring the taste of it. It wasn't something he ate all that often, even though he could afford to do so whenever he chose. This restaurant's staff knew what they were doing. He was glad he'd picked this one to be where he and Asuka went for their dinner together. He shyed away almost instinctively from calling it a date. Just saying that someone else would call it that had been enough of a shiver down his spine. 

Despite everything he'd seen and done over the years, the thought of actually dating someone still chilled Ryou to the bone. He'd seen how much of a pain the press and other duelists could be when they had just been making it up that he was dating someone. But if he and Asuka actually did begin to see each other regularly, what would they make of it? 

There wasn't even a hint of being able to keep it from them. Reporters regularly went through anything and everything to find out the smallest secrets of duelists of all kinds. There were four or five dueling magazines alone that he knew of who fought for the right to paw through the trash of whatever hotel he stayed at. If it hadn't been for his implied threat of legal action, they probably would've tried to claim he was seeing Matsuo or Hidaka already, just because they had to stay together all the time. He fully expected to see something of that nature one of these days anyway. It all depended on when they would get that desperate for a story. He'd seen things with less backing being taken as truth, sadly enough. 

He would have to talk to Asuka about it before they began anything that was remotely serious. Just the fact they would be together at the end of the tournament party would be enough to set some tongues wagging. Just the fact they were having this dinner was all some of them would need. The fact they were friends from childhood would either be ignored or blown out of proportion. There were the occasional days when he wondered if being in the Pro Leagues was worth the loss of what privacy he had. 

Dinner itself was almost over with, and he didn't really want to just go back to the hotel and sit in his room until he was bored enough to go to sleep. Going over his deck was always an option, but he could virtually recite his card list from memory. He would look through it before his duels tomorrow, but tonight, he thought they could perhaps rest a little. 

"What do you want to do after this?" Ryou decided to put the question to Asuka and see if there was anything that she'd been thinking about. 

"It's not all that late," she replied after a couple of moments of thought and a quick look at her watch. "Why don't we go for a walk around town? I still need to see if I can find something for Fubuki." 

He smiled just a touch, a little more than before. The thought of Fubuki could make anyone smile. Or go into a murderous rage, depending on what he'd been up to lately. "He would like anything you found, I know." 

"That's the whole problem. I want him to _love_ something I could find for him," Asuka replied. She finished off the last of her meal and sighed. "Just once, I'd like to find something that really made him _happy_. Not just because anything does, but because it's something that he wanted and couldn't get." She shook her head and sighed again. "I don't think I'm explaining it all that well." 

"No, it's all right." One didn't get to spend part of one's life as the best friend of Tenjoin Fubuki and not understand things like what she was saying. Fukubi defined the majority of the good and bad points to be found in any human being. Ryou wondered on occasion why no one had strangled him yet. All he could think of was that he usually charmed anyone intent on doing so out of it. 

He cleaned off his own plate and leaned back, pleasantly full. The idea of walking around doing a little window shopping if nothing else wasn't a bad one. It would work off the dinner and maybe he'd even be able to find something for Asuka that she'd like. In her own way she could be as hard to shop for as her brother was, but for different reasons. The trick now would be to buy it, if he should find it, without her noticing it. He thought he could manage that. 

Maybe it would be worth it to have the tabloids and newspapers prodding around. There was only one way to find out.

* * *

Decorations of all kinds glowed from every conceivable corner, and some that weren't conceivable as well. Artifical snow had been piled in some display windows, along with images of the fanciful North Pole, Santa Claus, and his workshop. Wreaths and other well-known symbols of the season could be seen anywhere that someone looked. 

"It really doesn't look all that different from home, does it?" Asuka wondered as they walked along. The decorations were much the same as she remembered, though she couldn't see any of the familiar origami swans. She had always enjoyed making those when she was younger. 

"Not really. I don't suppose it really would." There were only so many different kinds of things any given culture could develop for a winter festival kind of thing, of course. He shifted a little nervously as they walked, thinking of other things that he'd seen around this time of year while growing up. Seeing all of the decorations and hearing about the various customs had stirred up memories. 

_It's this time of year that a lot of young couples spend time together. Is Asuka going to want to do that? Do **I** want to do that?_ Agreeing to go to the end of the tournament party together wasn't quite the same thing, but it could be a suitable substitute, given their particular interests. It was hard to determine what they were doing because they truly wanted to do and what might be happening because they were a little caught up in the festive season. 

"It's just as well we're not there right now, though." Asuka's thoughts had kept on moving. "I'd imagine it would be the next thing to impossible to spend any time alone together." Her cheeks flushed a delicate shade of red at that, one he found quite pleasing. 

"More than likely. I was thinking something similar, actually. When Shou and I were children, we had a neighbor who always made it quite plain when she had a date for Christmas Eve," he recalled. He had never liked her all that much. "She would always make certain to tell our mother that she had one of the best hotel rooms in the city reserved for her and her boyfriend." His lips twitched slightly. "I don't recall her having the same boyfriend two years in a row, however." 

Asuka rolled her eyes at the thought. She had never wanted to bounce around from boy to boy like that. She fully intended to pick one person and stick with them, no matter what. That was why she hadn't bothered dating while she was in school. She wasn't going to make any commitments until she made the right one. Even if people started to whisper behind her back about how long she was taking to find the right one, it didn't matter to her. _Besides, I think I might have anyway._

The temperature was going down a little more now that the sun had set, and Asuka shivered. She'd remembered to bring a jacket this time, but it was still a little chilly. "Let's check out that store up there." She motioned to what looked like a _warm_ department store and the two of them headed towards it quickly. At least it wasn't going to be snowy tonight. It was a little hard to see them through the holiday lights, but the stars glittered above them, and a faint hint of white to the horizon hinted at the forthcoming presence of the moon. It would be a beautiful night. 

Ryou didn't protest as they entered; perhaps he was feeling the cold just like she was. She wasn't certain if that were true, given how he was bundled up. He wore a slight thicker coat than she did, one she thought she remembered Shou having sent him for a gift at some point. It suited him perfectly, being a deep shade of green, with deep pockets on each side, and came down to his mid-thigh, just about to where his boots came up to. There was virtually nothing of him that would be left to the cold. She thought it was made of some of the new materials that were being developed, which were much more resistance to cold and rain than anything else. Anything made like that was expensive, but Shou was dueling well enough to be able to afford it. 

Asuka was used to Christmas displays, especially with the holiday itself being as close as they were, but she wasn't used to ones like this. They probably existed; she'd just never bothered going out into them that much. Surely she'd find something for Fubuki here, and maybe even Ryou. It would be a pleasure if she did. She had more than enough American money to be able to buy almost anything she wanted. _I hope they don't expect me to talk to them that much, though._ That would be a horror all by itself. 

Thankfully, browsing didn't require anything like language skills. Browsing with Ryou meant if she wanted to read a tag and her English wasn't up to it, he could handle it for her. There were advantages to having a guy around, she decided. At least this particular one. 

When she saw it, it wasn't anything that someone might have considered as a gift for her brother. It was simple, elegant, and if she hadn't known better, might've thought that someone had made it with him in mind. _But is he going to like it?_ She leaned over to look at it more intently, and decided he would. In fact, there were two of them, which made it all the better, especially as it seemed to be designed to be worn by two different people. 

"How much is this?" Asuka asked the clerk, having strained to at least master that phrase. Hearing the price, she nodded briefly and looked over at Ryou. He was several feet away from her, looking at something else that she couldn't see from where he was. "I think I found something for Fubuki." 

Ryou came over as she said that and glanced at what she was looking at. He nodded slightly. "I believe that would do it." 

She quickly paid for and had wrapped up the matching pair of yin-yang necklaces. She would take it back with her when she went back to Japan and hand it over in person. The look on his face would be worth every other time she's gotten him something and he hadn't done anything more than thank her. She wanted him _stunned_. And if he wasn't, she'd make sure he was. There had to be a baseball bat or something around she could use. 

There was still Ryou to find something for, though, and she couldn't think of a single thing that he might possibly want or need. _There's got to be something._ She racked her brain once they left that department and wandered on more. Clothes just didn't seem right. He had never been much for jewelry, even for a guy. He had all the cards he would ever need and then some. Maybe a book of some kind? Nothing at all seemed right. 

She glanced to where he'd wandered ahead of her a little and thought harder. There had to be _something_. The trouble was, she had no idea if the something she wanted was here or somewhere else in the world. That was the problem with wanting to get something for the duelist who had everything. 

Then she caught sight of something and her heart skipped a beat or two. That was it! That was perfect! Someone out there had to have made it just for him. She hurried over, taking a quick look back to be certain he didn't see her, and managed to get it paid for as quickly as possible. She'd heard the Christmas crowds could be killer, but for the moment, they appeared to have taken a break. She wasn't even going to think about complaining. Not when it meant she could have this without putting up a fight for it. 

With her purchases safely tucked away out of sight, she went on to catch up with him. That was much easier to think than do, as it took her a few extra moments to even find him. _I know he was going this way. Did he figure out I was gone and start trying to look for me?_ That would be a comedy of errors, the two of them trying to find each other and yet not succeeding, missing by an aisle or two. 

"There you are." Ryou fell into step beside her as if she hadn't been gone for so much as a heartbeat. "Are you almost ready to go?" 

"I think so. It's starting to get late, I think," she smiled up at him, not letting him know that she'd found anything. What _had_ he been doing? She decided questioning him wouldn't be the thing to do. It was the season of giving, and the least she could do was give him his privacy. 

The trip back to the hotel was more or less a quiet one. Asuka kept her hands in her coat pockets, her fingers caressing first one of the hidden gifts, then the other. She could hardly believe she'd been lucky enough to find the perfect presents, so close to each other, and on the same trip. But there they were. She decided to give Ryou's to him during the celebration party. That would fit best, she thought. 

"Well, here we are," she said as they stopped outside of her hotel room door. It wasn't very late, but she was thinking about going to bed anyway, or at least dozing for a while. The thought of dueling him tomorrow had her keyed up, and she wanted to relax before something snapped: like her nerve. 

"I'll see you tomorrow," Ryou said. He inclined his head a little towards her, and she returned it. Neither of them made a move, though. They simply stood there looking at one another. Asuka couldn't quite bring herself to turn the doorknob. She couldn't take her eyes off of his. He started to lean a little towards her, and something inside of her did snap. She quickly turned the knob and opened the door, trembling from head to foot and not certain exactly of why. 

"Right. Tomorrow." She offered an awkward smile as an apology, then darted into her room and closed the door behind herself. _Idiot. Why didn't you kiss him? He wanted to. You wanted to._ She didn't have an answer beyond the fact it just hadn't _felt_ right at the time. It wasn't the best answer, but it was what she knew at the moment. 

She knew he'd left after she'd closed the door. He wouldn't just stand there and wait for her to come out again, especially since she wouldn't. She'd try to explain things tomorrow, if she could. If there was time after their duel.

* * *

Ryou shuffled his deck easily, the cards sliding through his hands with the ease of long practice. He had done this hundreds of times, if not thousands. Very few of those times had he been even remotely nervous. He had no idea if he was now or not. But he did wish, just in the deepest reaches of his awareness, that he was dueling almost anyone but Asuka today. He knew that they would still be friends afterwards. There was no way that could change. But still...he would have preferred anyone else. To defeat her in public, or to lose to her, would be different than if they were dueling for amusement somewhere private. 

He would manage, though. Whatever else happened, he knew he could manage. So would she. 

He drew his first set of cards and examined them. It wasn't the best hand he could've had, but it had what he needed, a low level card that he could play on his turn. Cyber Phoenix was one of his favorites. It wasn't as wonderful as one of his Cyber Dragons, but it was good enough. There were some spell cards he could use for support in his hand as well. He suspected he would be seeing his Cyber Dragons before the duel was over, though. 

Asuka stood on her side of the field, her own first hand held firmly, that fire he'd always admired glowing out of her eyes. Yes, he would fight for his victory, and she would likely enough make him sweat every step of the way. He didn't think she'd ever been more beautiful in that moment. _She is, isn't she?_ He allowed a small mental smile at the thought. Asuka was better than beautiful. She had the most character, the most strength, the most depth that he had seen in anyone for a long, long time. There weren't words for it, so he didn't waste his time trying to find them. She was Asuka. That was all she needed to be, and he was content with her being that. 

"I play Cyber Phoenix," he said, his turn being the first. The metallic bird shimmered into existence between them, strong and beautiful. He couldn't attack on his turn, of course, but he wasn't quite done yet. "I lay one card face down, and end my turn." He placed the card in his spell and trap zone, confidence strong in every move. 

Asuka nodded as she looked through her cards quickly, then drew her card for the turn and examined it. Whatever thoughts might have been going through her mind, she didn't reflect them in her eyes or expression. She was too experienced of a duelist to let that happen. The slightest hint of a good or bad draw could lead to success or failure. 

"I play Cyber Tu Tu, in attack mode!" She flashed a grin at him. "And I know you know it's special effect, Ryou." 

He smiled briefly. She had been lucky to draw that card when she had. But early duel luck didn't always last. "Indeed I do. Because Cyber Phoenix has an attack strength higher than Cyber Tu Tu, your monster can attack me directly." He didn't flinch as the monster leaped over towards his side of the field, completely avoiding Cyber Phoenix, and kicked him. The electronics and feedback on a Duel Disk were incredible; he felt as if he really _had_ been kicked. It wasn't as hard as it could have been, but his life counter went down by a thousand. He was going to have to do something about that monster. It could be annoying if that went on for too long. 

Luckily, he could do something about it. As she ended her turn, after placing something he suspected was a trap card face down, he drew a card and smiled quietly. It wasn't quite his Cyber Dragon, but Proto Cyber Dragon could be useful as well. If nothing else, it would make it possible for him to summon a real Cyber Dragon once he had one in his hand. Not to mention, for all intents and purposes it was considered to _be_ one while it was on the field. That could come in handy for several things. 

But at the moment, what he wanted to do was to make this duel last, to have them both give their best. It would be better if he held back until he had a few more cards that could be of greater use to him. He knew just the one that could be useful, but he couldn't count on it, and he wasn't. There were other plans waiting in the wings of his mind, of course. That would just be the one he liked the best, for now. There would be a way to win. He trusted his deck to see to it. After all, they'd worked together for a long time, he and this deck. 

For now, however, he had Cyber Phoenix attack her Cyber Tu Tu, wiping it off the field. He could see her fingers tightening on the cards a little; whatever card she'd laid down hadn't been of any use in this situation. She had to have planned for that, though. He would have. 

The duel kept on going, each of them drawing and using some of their better monsters. Not quite their _best_, though; each of them could feel that the other was waiting for just the right dramatic moment to pull out their best creatures. Before more than five turns had passed, Ryou was more than ready to bring things to an end. He had made plans for the ending of this two turns previously, after she'd brought out her current monster, and now it was time. Asuka had one of her greatest cards on the field, ready to attack him. He didn't have any monsters at all, and he wondered if she suspected what was in his mind. He would have to bring it to a close, or she'd finish him on her next turn. By now, he had only a thousand life points left, and she had five hundred. Cyber Prima looked more than ready to wipe him out. He wasn't really in the mood for that, however. There were other things he felt like doing besides lose a duel today. 

"An excellent duel, Asuka," he told her. "I've enjoyed myself more than I have with any other duelist in this entire tournament." 

"You haven't been so bad either," she replied, grinning. She knew, she had to know, what he was doing. There wasn't a hint of anger in her eyes, though. She'd kept her word: no matter what, they would still be friends, with the chance of more, when this was done. 

He nodded a little, then began. "I activate the effect of Future Fusion!" He was glad he hadn't played that until after Cyber Prima had taken the field, since Cyber Prima's special effect upon being summoned destroyed all face-up spell cards. That could've been annoying. His instincts had served him well again. "And the monster I choose is the Cyber End Dragon!" 

In all of it's glittering metallic glory, his beautiful creature rose before him, three heads hissing and flaring with power, ready to finish this duel. Ryou felt his own soul responding; if any creature could be said to match him, it was this one, he knew. There was nothing else that could be done. Asuka didn't have anything else on the field, and after her previous turn, she hadn't been able to change Cyber Prima to defense mode. Not that it would matter much if she had, with Cyber End Dragon's special effect. "Attack Cyber Prima!" 

The blast was impressive, even for holographs. He'd seen it so many other times, but he never grew weary of it. As the dust cleared and Asuka's life point counter was shown cycling down to zero, he smiled. It wasn't a cruel smile of triumph, as it might have been some years ago, but a simple smile of pleasure at a well played duel. 

"Congratulations." Asuka smiled as she gathered up her cards. "I was hoping I could pull something to get rid of Future Fusion, but the cards just didn't co operate this time." 

"Maybe they will next time," he suggested as they started away from the dueling arena. 

"We'll see. So what do you want to do for the rest of the day?" Spending it together came to mind for him as soon as she asked the question. The next day would be the last of the tournament, Christmas Eve itself, and after that, it would be time for her to leave. He wished he could; but there were other things his manager had already had planned for him and his two protégées. He couldn't really look forward to any of it, either. Not as much as he did to every moment he'd been spending with Asuka lately. 

"I hadn't made that many plans. Matsuo and Hidaka are already out of the tournament so I don't have to watch their duels, and I've already given them my critiques on how they did." That, thankfully, had not taken very long. They hadn't made as many mistakes as they once had, and for the most part their losses had been simply because of the bad luck of the draw. That was something any duelist had to learn to deal with. 

Asuka nodded. "I've got to be ready to go soon." She didn't sound very happy about it. He knew that her family was probably already working on getting the New Year's decorations up, or would be once she was ready to go, due to the time difference. "I suppose I should get ready for that." She was even less enthused about that. 

"We could go for a walk," he suggested. Going out to eat didn't quite appeal to him at the moment. He wanted to rest, to wind down from the excitement of the duel. Going to the ocean would help with that. 

With just enough of a break so they could go to their respective rooms and get their coats, the two of them were shortly walking down by the ocean yet again. Hidaka and Matsuo had been given strict orders not to interrupt him under any circumstances. He would find out who he was to duel later without their help, and he wasn't interested enough right now to look. 

He breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of the ocean, letting the breeze run nonexistent fingers through his hair. He would have a devil of a time trying to get all the knots out after this. He didn't care. He liked how it felt at the moment. 

"So, we're going to be going to the party together tomorrow night," Asuka said quietly, glancing up at him briefly. He nodded, noticing the wind playing with her hair as well. He wondered for a moment what it would be like to brush his own fingers through it. It wasn't a thought he'd had before, and he examined it curiously before letting it slip away. He had a feeling it would come back some other time, though. It was the kind of thought that wanted to stick around and grow a little. He very much believed he was going to like that. He liked quite a few things about Asuka, he was coming to find. 

"I hope I'll be able to make it back to Japan in time to spend a little more time with you before the next round of Pro League duel gets started," he said. "And I'd like to see what happens when you give Fubuki his gift." He fingered a little something in his pocket. There was something else he'd like to see, but that would have to wait a little while. Just until the next night. 

She laughed a little. "I can't wait to see the look on his face for it myself. It's going to be great." 

Talking and laughing, taking all the time they could to be with one another while they could be, they kept on walking, letting the wind and water wipe away all the exhaustion, leaving only friendship and the slow growth of everything else between them in it's wake.

* * *

Asuka ran a brush through her hair a few times, getting rid of the last tangles. She was almost ready to go down for the combination end of tournament and Christmas Eve dance. All of her clothes, except for what she had on, her traveling outfit, and her sleepwear, had been packed up already, as had everything else. She would be leaving in the morning to head back home. 

_I hope Ryou really can make it there before the end of the year._ Letting her family know she was sort of seeing someone was going to be interesting. Fubuki would probably be torn between being disappointed and being glad. He'd been after her to start dating ever since they were in school, after all. This meant he wouldn't be able to nag her anymore. It was worth it for that, in and of itself. She would've done it even he had kept on after her, though. 

A polite knock came to her door and she went over to answer it. As she'd suspected, Ryou stood out there, dressed in his own finest outfit. He looked fantastic, better than she could have ever imagined him to be. 

"Are you ready?" he asked and she nodded, taking a moment to tuck the brush into her luggage quickly. "You look wonderful." 

"I was just thinking the same thing about you," she smiled and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. "Congratulations, by the way." 

Ryou smiled and nodded slightly. "Did you tell Juudai the same thing?" 

"Of course," she said. Why wouldn't she have? It wasn't often that there was a tie when it came to a Duel Monsters tournament. But once again, it seemed that Juudai and Ryou were absolute equals when it came to skill. That duel was probably going to be held up to future generations as the epitome of what dueling could be like 

Together the two of them went down to where the party was being held. There was already a crowd there, just as thick as for most of the duels had been just a day or two earlier. Asuka could see a few people she knew there, and waved a little at Hayato as he went by. She caught sight of Misawa and Juudai sitting at a table off to the side together, talking animatedly. In fact, they were so animated about whatever it was they were discussing that people were giving them a three foot berth, just to avoid being hit by their flailing arms. 

Decorations glowed from everywhere, just as they did out in the city. She saw holly, ivy, mistletoe, and so much more there. _I'll never forgive Fubuki for following me around with that mistletoe last year, either._ He'd done his best to get her caught under it with four different guys. She hadn't been interested in any of them, and perhaps this year, she'd finally be able to convince him of that. She wasn't certain if she would, but she would try, at least. 

Reporters were what caught hold of Ryou's attention. There were several that had been invited to cover not just the tournament but this party as well. It was almost impossible to know when one was going to be photographed by them, with all the lights flickering all over the place. The flash of a camera blended in nearly perfectly with everything else. 

Situations like this had never been ones that he excelled at, at least not by choice. He had to deal with them, whether he wanted to or not, however. At least tonight he was here with someone of his choice, not someone his manager had tried, with varying degrees of success, to foist off on him. Most of those had ended badly, at least by the point of view of the unlucky girl. He had generally been glad to scrape her off. 

"So, think we should dance a little?" Asuka suggested, motioning to where so many others were already turning and twirling in the latest dance craze. Ryou's expression must have betrayed his inner thoughts for once, since she laughed and shook her head. "I didn't really want to either. Come on, let's just mingle a little." 

That was marginally more interesting. They stopped long enough by the refreshment table to pick up a cup of punch and a tray of small eatables each, then headed over to where Juudai and Misawa were sitting. 

"Hey, guys!" Juudai waved cheerfully as they came up. "That was a cool duel, Ryou, we're going to have to do it again sometimes." 

"Isn't twice enough for you?" Misawa asked with a warm smile. He had improved so much from what Asuka remembered in their school days. Everything that had happened to him had been very, very good for him. 

Ryou smiled briefly. "Whenever you'd care for another match, I'd be glad to oblige." 

"I wish I'd seen the one between you two." Juudai leaned forward, eyes bright and eager. "I heard that was _awesome_!" 

Asuka smiled; Juudai really wasn't ever going to change. Dueling would always be where his heart lay the most. She knew how he felt, for the most part. She glanced for a moment at Ryou, almost wishing that they had danced just a little. If there hadn't been so many people, maybe they both would've felt a little more like it. 

She nibbled a little on the sandwiches she'd picked up, finding them quite tasty. Pegasus had obviously hired some very skilled caterers. She glanced around curiously to see if their host was visible, and caught sight of him near one of the doors heading out. With him was someone with long pink hair, dressed very fashionably. She thought for a moment it was a woman, then did a double-take as the person turned slightly and she got a better look at their face. Well. Who would have guessed. Given that it was really none of her business, she turned her attention back to the rest of her friends. 

"You know, I don't usually listen to rumors, but the gossip has been running quite strong about the two of you in the last day or so," Misawa said, looking at both Ryou and Asuka. "Is there any truth to it?" 

From anyone else, that question might have been considered intensely rude by either of the two duelists. But they both knew Misawa more than well enough not to take it personally. His intense drive for knowledge was what was behind it, like it behind everything else he did. 

"It depends on what the rumors are saying," Asuka told him. She glanced at Ryou for a moment, then back to Misawa. 

"They're saying that you two are dating." Misawa spoke the words calmly. Juudai didn't even seem to be interested, at least not in them. The shrimp on his plate were the focus of his attention right now. 

Ryou shrugged briefly. "At least they're getting something right, for a change. In a way, we are." 

"It isn't anything completely serious, at the moment," Asuka added. She had to be honest, though. "But it's not something that _isn't_ serious either." 

Misawa said nothing for a few moments, then nodded slightly. "Whatever happens, I wish you both the best of luck." 

"Yeah, same here," Juudai added, showing he hadn't been quite as fascinated by the food as he had seemed to be as he looked up with that familiar smile of his. Asuka returned the expression, then looked at Ryou. 

"Want to step outside for a quick breath of fresh air?" she asked. They hadn't been here all that long, but the press of people, the music, and the scents of food, perfume, and who knew what else were getting to her just a little. She had no idea of how some people could stand it. 

Ryou's answer was to get up and escort her over to the door. Asuka relaxed a little as they got outside, breathing in the cooler night air. She liked the holiday season, but it almost seemed to choke her at some points. Being alone like this, or mostly alone, was much more preferable. There was nothing here that anyone wanted from her except her company, and she would offer that to Ryou at any time. 

She closed her eyes for a moment and tilted her head back, then opened her eyes, taking in the vast view of the stars above. "Aren't they beautiful?" she murmured. It had been so long since she'd been in a position to look at them. The hotel was situated just far enough from the main part of the city so the lights, at least from this vantage point, didn't wash them out. She shivered a little, and wished that this time she'd thought to bring a jacket. She hadn't considered the possibility she might go outside this evening. 

"Yes," Ryou replied. She felt the warmth of his arms around her, an unusual gesture from him, and leaned a little closer. Maybe having forgotten the jacket wasn't that bad after all. This had to be one of the more perfect moments of her life to date. 

_His gift._ She had almost forgotten it, and she'd put it in her pocket, just to be certain she didn't. "Oh. I have something for you." She pulled it out carefully, making sure not to disturb the wrapping. "I got it when we were out the other day." 

He took it from her hand and then reached into his own pocket. "I found something for you then too." He handed a small package over. Asuka hoped she wasn't blushing yet again. She had never expected that he would find her something, much less get it for her. That just wasn't what he did. 

She carefully unwrapped the box, and caught her breath at the sight of the framed print of a storm-tossed ocean. "It's beautiful." It reminded her so much of him and herself and the ocean that bound them together. 

"So is this." Ryou looked down into the gift she'd given. There was a crystal statue of a Cyber Dragon, one of several Duel Monster carvings she'd seen at the department store. "Thank you." 

"You're welcome." She could see the joy shining in his eyes at the gift. It was perfect for him, just the way she'd thought it would be. For a moment, she glanced up over her head. She'd seen something up there when she'd looked at the stars, and wanted to be sure it was what she thought it was. _Mistletoe._ Fubuki had been conducting a one-man campaign to get more people around home to start kissing under it. She glanced back at Ryou. "You know, it's the custom here to kiss if you're under the mistletoe." 

He looked up over their heads, then back to her, and leaned in more closely. She inched closer to him, and their lips brushed just for a moment, then closer together. Asuka wrapped her arms around him, feeling his tighten around her, and kissed again. There wasn't any need to say anything. What needed to be said, after all? 

Neither of them moved very far from the other, even once they were no longer kissing. They would have to separate soon enough. There was no need to rush it. But they would be together again, and that was all that mattered: the embrace of the moment, and the promise of the future. 

**

The End

**


End file.
